Flexxbotics’ Guide to Robotic Machine Tending Projects

Flexxbotics’ white paper – Complete Guide to Robotic Machine Tending Projects – provides in-depth information on the different aspects of a robot machine tending initiative that are necessary to achieve greater unattended operation, higher yields, and improved margins.

Robotic machine tending initiatives include numerous factory-dependent and project-specific considerations that must be taken into account to achieve success. Identifying relevant requirements and planning is critical to attain project goals. These can range from the business objectives driving the project’s return on investment (ROI) and budget to desired outcomes, facility constraints, operational and equipment trade-offs, technical requirements, and more.

“Our experience over hundreds of robotic machine tending projects across a wide range of industries and processes has proven that thorough planning is key to accomplishing the target business goals,” says Tyler Modelski, CTO & co-founder at Flexxbotics. “We’ve published this paper as a comprehensive reference tool for advanced manufacturers especially on more sophisticated advanced robotic machine tending projects.”

White Paper topics include:

• Why use robots for CNC machine tending?
• What types of processes and machines are right for robotic machine tending?
• What kinds of parts are best for robotic machine tending?
• Can part/job changeover be automated?
• Automated CNCs vs robot-enabled CNCs?
• What are common challenges in robotic machine tending?
• When is robotic machine tending right for your factory?
• What are the robotic machine tending project phases?
• Getting started: 15-point project plan outline
• Next steps: Project checklist
• Advanced topics: Achieving lights out manufacturing
• Compliance requirements: Safety & risk assessments
• Investment planning: Budgeting & ROI justification
• Best practices: Steps to success in robotic machine tending
• Common pitfalls: Obstacles to avoid in robotic machine tending
• RFP starter template: Example RFP for robotic machine tending

The significant increase in robotic machine tending worldwide means more companies than ever are undertaking implementation initiatives. Lights out operation, where production runs continuously without human intervention, is a growing requirement for robotic machine tending and requires more than just robots. 

Production process orchestration becomes essential including not just loading and unloading, but tool wear detection, defect identification, sorting, corrective action, and more. All must be fully automated and synchronized. This requires interoperable coordination between the robots, factory machines, and other equipment, as well as robotic production software that manages the parts, jobs, changeovers, workflows, and processes for unattended operation. Standard digital solutions such as Flexxbotics are intended for these types of complex smart factory robotic operation.

Flexxbotics enables robot-driven manufacturing at scale. Flexxbotics solution digitalizes robotic production with Autonomous Process Control for next generation smart factory environments. Flexxbotics breakthrough, the unique FlexxCORE technology, seamlessly connects and coordinates robots with existing automation equipment, IT systems and people.

“Robotic machine tending projects require careful planning to achieve coordinated production operations especially when automated part changeover is included,” Bouchard says. “That’s why powerful solutions like Flexxbotics include seamless implementation for scalability without sacrificing agility.”